Mayor Koch: I should have protested FEMA's Quincy map sooner

If given a redo, Mayor Thomas Koch says he would have reacted differently to Quincy's new flood map, set to go into effect this June.

By Patrick Ronan and Jessica TrufantThe Patriot Ledger

QUINCY – If given a redo, Mayor Thomas Koch says he would have reacted differently to Quincy’s new flood map, originally set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to go into effect this June.

But the city, along with the rest of the state, could still see some relief from the new maps after the U.S. House of Representatives in a 306-91 vote Tuesday passed a flood insurance relief bill.

The bill, if approved by the Senate and President Obama, will reduce the impact of flood maps and certain parts of the law known as the Biggert-Waters Act, which eliminates flood insurance subsidies for properties built before the creation of flood maps. The relief bill would reinstate the grandfathered rates, reimburse those who overpaid for their flood insurance policies and contains other provisions to help property owners facing massive rate hikes.

If Koch had appealed the city’s flood map last year, FEMA might have delayed the implementation of Norfolk County’s maps by a year, as it did for Plymouth County when Scituate and Marshfield filed appeals. The maps raise flood insurance rates for thousands of Quincy homeowners.

“If I were doing this again with the flood map, I’d be jumping and screaming a lot earlier,” Koch said Tuesday during an editorial board meeting at The Patriot Ledger’s office.

While work continues on Capitol Hill, Koch is being criticized by city councilors and residents for not appealing the new map before FEMA’s deadline passed last June. On Monday, the city council approved Councilor Doug Gutro’s plan to consider giving tax abatements to property owners who are affected by the new map, citing Koch’s decision not to appeal as the reason behind the abatements.

Bob Maguire, 74, who lives in a section of Wollaston affected by the new map, said he and some of his neighbors are on fixed incomes and can’t afford higher flood-insurance premiums. Although he is a Koch supporter, Maguire said he is disappointed the mayor didn’t pursue a citywide appeal of the map, which adds 1,400 new properties to the flood plain and raises insurance rates for 2,700 properties already in the plain.

“I think he’s doing a good job. But on this here, he dropped the ball,” Maguire said.

Koch said he followed the advice of Woodard & Curran – the city’s engineering consultant – to not appeal the map and instead file map-revision requests on behalf of individual neighborhoods. The city is hiring a land surveyor to challenge the map’s methodology.

Although the city got its first look at the city’s preliminary new map in the spring of 2013, Koch didn’t schedule a public forum to discuss it until last month. In hindsight, Koch said the city should have been more proactive in alerting the public.

“My political sense is that I should have done what everyone else did before, which was jump and scream,” Koch said. “We took what I thought was a more logical and rational approach.”

Koch said his decisions not to appeal the map and not to hold a public meeting sooner were driven by assurances from federal lawmakers that Congress would ultimately delay implementation of the new maps and push back Biggert-Waters. “They’re all up for re-election (in the fall). My guess is they’ll be taking action on that,” Koch said.

Even if the relief bill ultimately fails, Koch said he is confident FEMA will delay the implementation of Quincy’s map because of the city’s pending requests for map amendments.

Koch said the city’s new map will be available for viewing online next week, and his office is in the process of notifying all the residents who will be affected by the changes. Thus far, the only way for people check the map has been by visiting the city’s engineering offices at 55 Sea St.